The superposition of two squeezed vacuum states is analyzed by studying the photon-number probability distribution and the quadrature-phase-eigenstate marginal distributions. Interference fringes in the distributions are observed for some superposition states. The nonlinear oscillator generates a particular superposition of two squeezed vacuum states and the properties of this superposition state are discussed and contrasted with the other superposition states.

• Received 5 December 1988

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.39.4284